Tentacle-Free Anime: "Plastic Little" (1994)

The 80s and 90s were the heyday of the OVA: Original Video Animation. Straight to video anime that was generally allowed to be more risque than what appeared on TV. A lot of interesting stories came out of this era, and so did a lot of creators. Today we're discussing the 1994 OVA Plastic Little, helmed by one of my personal favorite manga artists: Satoshi Urushihara. Let's get to it!​

Summary: As Elysse is being followed by the army because she knows more about the secret military project of her dead father, she ends up getting protection from Tita and her friends. Together, they will try to stop the imperialistic plans of the army commander Gaizel. [AnimeNewsNetwork.com]

[SPOILERS!!]

This is an anime I was made aware of through commercials ADV put on their VHS releases of Devil Hunter Yohko – we talked about it – and thought now might be a fun time to finally check it out. Making this also one of ADV's very first home video releases in the U.S.

Click to enlarge

If you've ever heard the term “less is more”, just remember that often times it doesn't apply to anime, and that's definitely true for this single episode OVA where a lot happens in the span of 45 minutes. The story follows a professional animal hunting crew led by the young Tita, a girl who lost her father 5 years prior to the story's beginning and was put in charge as next in line, after she saves another girl named Elysse from being taken hostage by a rogue faction of the military.

Elysse's father, who was working on a secret project for the military, is shot dead at the beginning of the story after he learns that he's been building a secret weapon this whole time. (You know, after writing this I realize this anime has quite a bit in common with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that recently came out.) She's able to escape and, from there, runs into our other heroine and her crew.

We do get to learn a bit about the crew, the show remembers to slow down its pace a bit near the middle so we can see some human interaction between the various members of Tita's team. However, I didn't feel like the was enough dialogue that truly told us about the people we were dealing with and really, by the end of the adventure, so many of them are relegated to being background characters that it's hard to care about any of the crew members during the whole thing.

Tita's crew

Instead, most of the time is focused on Tita and Elysse, the two of them getting to know one another. Though they don't do so intimately, this is technically a yuri anime so you can see where the two of them start to really bond throughout. I'll say their pairing is quite sweet. I bring up the intimacy part, however, only because these two girls spend quite a bit of the story naked together.

There's a long bathhouse scene of the two of them talking and bathing with one another, and because this is 90s anime with few limitations there are a lot of uncensored boobs in this. So just be cautious of that when watching this.

The second half of the episode sees these exotic animal hunters then taking on the military after they come for Elysse again and get from her the information they need to enact their diabolical plans. What follows is a long invasion plot that sees mostly Tita and Elysse taking on hordes of military soldiers and winning. It would have been nice to see the team work together to get Elysse where she needs to be to override the military's system, but sadly we don't get that.

Elysse & Tita were meant for one another

The most actual teamwork we get from the crew is during the getaway scene towards the end where, like the Firefly crew in Serenity, they must go through hordes of enemy ships in order to escape capture. It's a fun scene, but it took me out of the story when I realized that these animal hunters are way more equipped for lethal combat than the actual military and thus are able to kill literally thousands of people, melting them and their ships to nothing in one big blast of energy that had me trying very hard not to groan in anguish.

Let me be clear, I did have fun with Plastic Little. I think it is a fun little adventure, but I also think it could have been far better than it ended up being. And perhaps originally this was a show meant to be longer than only one episode, but what we got is what we got and what we got it just okay in the grand scheme of things. It's not something I'm going to openly recommend.

Which is sad, because the story is helmed by a creator I personally enjoy. Satoshi Urushihara is the manga creator of Chirality, a manga I quite enjoyed and he has led quite a lot of projects with his unique art style. From manga, to video games, to anime, and yes even hentai. Since with all the boob action it can feel like its borderlining as such.

Tita has no idea what's going on

There's also a 5 chapter manga sequel to Plastic Little, but, since we're only discussing the anime, I won't talk at all about that. This anime has a lot of action in it and if you're just a big fan of action stuff, then this is definitely for you. But I'm also a character guy and though we get plenty for Tita and Elysse, I do wish we had gotten more for the other crew members, or even the villains. But at 45 minutes there's only so much you can do and the assault scenes take up the largest parts of the adventure.

If you feel so inclined to, then check out Plastic Little. If not, well you're not missing much. Which I hate to have to say about any anime I watch.

Final Score: 2 Powerful Young Women out of 5​

Have you seen Plastic Little? Do you agree or disagree with Kazekun? Let us know in the comments!